THE EARTH IS ALL THAT LASTS

Four long years after Agapao, which the
New
York Times considered one of the best one-man band records ever,
Makerworks is finally proud to announce The Earth Is All That
Lasts. Thematically speaking, TEIATL is intended as a dark
twin to
the open-hearted Agapao – so dark, in fact, that Maker
contemplated more than once abandoning the project
altogether. It wasn’t until this “best country rock
singer-songwriter from East Alabama who you have never heard of”
felt that he had enough distance from the material to approach it
more as a producer and performer than as a confessional songwriter
that this release began to take shape.

TEIATL was originally entitled Ain’t
Dead
Yet and envisioned as a stark acoustic EP in honor of Skip
James
and his infamously haunting cross-note tuning. Thus, Maker
began the initial recordings with live acoustic guitar and vocals
and no click track, intending to flesh things out with minimal,
atmospheric overdubs and no percussion. Pleased with the
live takes but ever dissatisfied with the attempts at overdubs,
the second stop-and-start-again factor that slowed his progress
was how to present the material, if at all. Thanks to the
Malian djembe featured on Agapao, loads of full-on
overdubs, some
monstrous Ludwigs borrowed from a friend and a touch of digital
studio wizardry to shore things up, something completely
unexpected happened.

While TEIATL continues where Agapao
left
off as a one-man band affair, recorded by Maker entirely at the
Foxhole and once again featuring mixing by Mark Nevers, mastering
by Sarah
Register and artwork by Christoph Mueller, the
new
release is a significant step forward sonically, and it’s a much
more concise listening experience – unlike the sprawling Agapao,
this album is designed to fit snugly on one slab of vinyl.
TEIATL will be released digitally on May 15, 2015, but Maker is
still searching for another label to reissue it and Agapao
on
vinyl, if only in deluxe limited editions. Once again, thank
you all for listening, hope all is well and please continue to
spread the word!